Scientists believe these mummified knees belong to one of ancient Egypt's most intriguing queens

They may not be the most regal of body parts but scientists have concluded that a pair of mummified knees found in a tomb a century ago probably belong to one of ancient Egypt’s most intriguing queens.

The two knees were discovered on their own, with no connecting body, by an Italian archaeologist in 1904 when he opened a tomb that had already been ransacked by ancient grave robbers.

For more than 100 years Egyptologists have wondered whose royal frame the knees once supported. Today they think they have an answer: Nefertari, the wife of the pharaoh Rameses the Great.

An international team subjected the pair of knees to a battery of X-ray, DNA, and carbon dating tests and concluded they belonged to an unusually tall woman who died at around 40.

The tomb robbers smashed the stone sarcophagus, pulled the coffins out and ripped the mummy into pieces

The grandeur of the tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Queens suggests she was a senior royal, as do some of the objects found buried next to her, for example a pair of finely-crafted sandals.

All signs pointed to a royal burial from around 1200 BC, which overlaps with Nefertari’s own lifetime. “The most likely scenario is that the mummified knees truly belong to Queen Nefertari,” the scientists concluded.

Nefertari is one of ancient Egypt’s most famous queens and was the primary wife of Rameses, a conquering pharaoh who expanded his kingdom across the modern Middle East and whose visage is captured in stone outside the great temples he built.

Unusually for her time, Nefertari was well-educated and could write in hieroglyphics. She put her skills to use on her husband’s behalf and kept up a diplomatic correspondence with the wives of neighbouring kings.

“Nefertari was the most beloved wife of King Ramses II and played an active role in foreign politics,” is the how the new report describes her.

The tomb had already been looted by the time it was opened by Ernesto Schiaparelli during the Egypt craze of the early 20th century, making it difficult for historians to make sense of what was buried inside it.

Much of the fine jewellery one would expect in a royal tomb was gone, as were the bodies themselves, with the exception of the knee fragments. Some non-metal artifacts had also been left on the floor.

But the scientists offered a vivid description of how she might have been buried.

“Her mummy was decorated with funerary jewellery bearing her name as the deified Osiris [God of the Afterlife],” they wrote.

“Her mummy was placed in gilded wooden coffins. The coffins were placed in a stone sarcophagus bearing her name. The niches in the burial chamber were equipped with magical bricks. Statues of Gods made of black-coated wood were placed in her tomb along with other funerary goods, some of which bear her name.”

They also described how the tomb was vandalised and her artifacts left in disarray.

“The tomb robbers smashed the stone sarcophagus, pulled the coffins out and ripped the mummy into pieces. The remains were thrown on the ground; the funerary equipment was plundered and only the wooden, clay and stone objects were left behind.”